Ann Coulter waits for ‘Rubio-free’ Senate

Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter is warning Republicans not to vote for immigration reform, saying the House shouldn’t touch the issue until there is a Republican-controlled, “Rubio-free” Senate.

“The patriotic House member’s position has got to be until the Senate is in Republican hands, preferably Rubio-free, sorry, we’re not even going to pass a bill that mentions immigration” Coulter said Thursday on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News, referring to Gang of Eight member Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

Text Size

Coulter also had strong words for Republican leadership in the House, especially the word “idiot.”

“John Boehner secretly wants to pass amnesty because his idiot consultants are telling him, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a great boon for Republicans, having 30 million voters who will never vote for a Republican,’” Coulter said, skeptical of the idea that newly legalized voters would vote for the GOP. “[A House bill] will go into conference with the Senate bill, come out amnesty, and I’m sorry, but idiots like Paul Ryan will vote for it.”

Hannity, likewise, is not joining fellow Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in supporting immigration reform, saying Republicans are “suckers” to trust that they will get border security in exchange for supporting what he called amnesty.

“You know what I don’t understand here? It’s like Republicans are suckers. And I don’t trust the government: Every time there is talk of a tax increase and spending cuts, you get the tax increase, never get the spending cuts. You always get the amnesty, never the border control,” Hannity said.

Referring to an amendment proposed in the Senate to toughen border control, which observers thought raises the likelihood of strong bipartisan support for the proposed immigration bill, Hannity said he didn’t understand why border control was controversial at all.

“Doesn’t America have the right to be a sovereign country and secure its borders? Why is that even controversial, and why don’t you do that first?” Hannity said.

Slamming TV hosts for lulling viewers into complacency on the topic and Republicans for adopting Democrats’ “lying”, Coulter agreed the border control issue was misleading.

“It’s an utter fig leaf to pretend that this is going to secure the border. What, one border agent every 1,000 yards? All this is is more government workers, more pensions. It doesn’t shore up the border, it’s a fig leaf to allow Republicans who want amnesty but don’t want their voters to punish them. Punish them, voters. We don’t want this amendment,” Coulter said.